Daley Quickly Flexes School Muscle

May 25, 1995|By John Kass and Rick Pearson, Tribune Staff Writers.

As the Illinois General Assembly on Wednesday finally gave Mayor Richard M. Daley some of the sweeping powers he's craved to run the troubled Chicago Public Schools, the mayor took steps to show he'd do more than complain about what Republican lawmakers hadn't given him.

He outlined plans to hold weekly "golden fleece" awards highlighting mismanagement and waste at the Chicago Board of Education as a tool to encourage state lawmakers to give him greater powers.

And rather than avoid controversy, he plunged in with a suggestion that $35 million in politically sacrosanct school-busing dollars might be better used to improve reading and other programs.

The moves by the Democratic mayor and the Republican-dominated legislature took place on a day of historic change for a system long mired in status-quo politics. By day's end, the lame duck 15-member Chicago Board of Education at what will likely be their last meeting closed eight schools in a controversial move. And school bureaucrats, such as Supt. Argie Johnson, scrambled to keep their jobs.

The GOP school plan, which Gov. Jim Edgar said he will sign, creates a five-member school board to be appointed by Daley and bans teachers from striking for 18 months.

Yet to be determined is whether the measure is a Republican Trojan Horse destined to further divide Chicago Democrats by putting Daley at odds with traditional support from labor and the school bureaucracy; a last chance for the city schools to turn out a literate and employable workforce; or a poison pill for a white mayor in charge of a minority-dominated system that has failed to adequately educate hundreds of thousands of children.

Daley's challenge transcends politics. He must improve the schools so that middle class families opt to stay in the city rather than flee to the suburbs, taking not only their energies but their tax dollars with them. At the same time, he must avoid war with the unions and other Democratic special interests that have gripped the system for decades.

Daley stressed Wednesday he had no intention of starting a fight with the Chicago Teachers Union.

But he vowed to hold weekly "golden fleece" awards as part of a marketing plan to convince legislators and Edgar that he needs more flexibility in managing the system.

The plan also would deliver state school aid in the form of two block grants, an effort to provide budgeting flexibility. But Daley has argued that at least two-thirds of the dollars are earmarked to specific programs, requiring the district to seek state waivers.

"If we save money in driver's education programs, we can't transfer that money into a program for reading," Daley said. "So every week we're going to point out, here's what we can do, and here's what they won't let us do. . . ."

When asked if he was distancing himself from the package, Daley said:

"I have no problems in rolling up your sleeves. But this legislation is not signed in concrete. This is not perfect legislation. . . ."

Daley also called for a re-examination of policies such as school busing.

The schools have a student population that is 89 percent minority, yet the system spends about $117 million each year to meet desegregation guidelines, including about $35 million for busing programs, that school officials say are impossible to attain given that only 11 percent of the students are white.

Daley said he will continue to explore legal means to free the schools from the 1980 federal desegregation consent decree with the aim of shifting those funds to reading and other programs.

"Oh yeah, we've asked for that. We're doing that constantly . . . whether at the CTA or all these other mandates," Daley said. "Definitely, you have to look at the whole aspect of federal court decisions."

But in his eagerness to move quickly to begin running the schools, Daley inadvertently illustrated difficulties he will face in balancing the political interests of the city.

Not only are there likely to be negative reactions to proposals for changes in busing from some African-American politicians and activists, but his own middle class constituency base could be damaged by such a move.

Federal desegregation mandates and the 1980 consent decree led the city schools to create the current two-tiered system, where magnet schools and special academies designed to attract whites and the middle class were given new funding and staffing powers. At the same time neighborhood schools with higher minority populations were allowed to languish.

"What the mayor is beginning to face, or will face soon, is the realization that if you're going to balance the school budget, somebody's programs are going to be cut," said Fred Hess, executive director of the school budget watchdog group, the Chicago Panel on Schools.

"The system is only 11 percent white, but of those being bused with desegregation money to magnet schools, the percentage of white students is much higher," Hess said. "It's his political constituency that would be affected by such a move."